Artists for Education
The Periodic Table of the Elements
PROTONS. NEUTRONS. ELECTRONS.
The whole deal.
Artists for Education is an organization that rallies designers to create engaging, thoughtfully-crafted educational artwork for classrooms. I was lucky to be approached by one of AFE’s founders—my buddy Brad Woodard of Brave the Woods—to create a poster for the project on the periodic table of the elements. You know, protons, neutrons, electrons—the whole deal.
FAMILIAR FORM. FRIENDLY ENERGY.
Finding the format.
Acting as both a blessing and potential curse, there were plenty of accepted conventions displaying the information contained within the periodic table. I wanted to stay true to these familiar forms, while making sure the design was both engaging and affable. It was a beast, but eventually a layout emerged that had a nice character to it. In addition to the table’s form, using some bright colors—with some killer suggestions from my good buddy Brad—helped bring things to life.I also wanted to employ a typeface that was legible, but not too monotonous. Again, friendly. Affable. Kind. Eventually the Neuzeit Grotesk type family rose to the challenge, with a supporting cast of ITC Lubalin Graph and Fenway Park JF typefaces to round out the rest of the poster’s typographic character.
118 ELEMENTS. LOTS OF KERNING.
Lots of letters, and a boatload of numbers.
118 iterations and lots of kerning later, each element had its proper atomic number, chemical symbol, atomic name, and atomic weight properly documented. So get out there—go learn more about the natural world and the science that surrounds you!
